BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Republican Party The Do-Nothing ([i]Positive[/i]) President

Somebody please tell the President he can't vote "present" anymore since he's not in the Senate. The General in Afghanistan asks for more troops and the President doesn't answer him. I've made the mistake of not making a decision to avert a negative outcome, but Obama takes it to a new level. The Guantanomo prison was supposed to be closed within a year and there has been no movement on that plan other than trying to decide where to move the gutless, heartless murdering despots that reside there. By the way is gutless, heartless, murdering, and despots on the President's list of terms we can't use anymore? Remember this gem?: Global War on Terror is now "Overseas Contingency Operation". I'm so happy they changed that term. We wouldn't want those "overseas contingency operators" who are trying to destroy America and gladly kill any American to feel bad. I wonder what the men, women, and children that occupied the World Trade Center towers on 9/11 would think of that? And thank goodness we're investigating those American overseas contingency operators known as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). We can't have them playing loud music and feigning drowning by pouring water over someone's head in the interest of saving the lives of Americans. These "overseas contingency operators" have rights too. We can't even call terrorists "enemy combatants" anymore. They're now called "persons" whom the president "has the authority to detain." I guess it can't be too far down the road until we start fighting these "Civility Challenged(?)" people with rocks, paper, scissors.

You are so right. Let's keep treating people who may or may not be criminals in inhumane ways. That will give every other country the right to treat our guys that way when they get captured! What a good idea!

Some of those "inhumanely" kept prisoners get better treatment than our homeless: State of the art medical care, room, board, access to spiritual guidance, ect. I have a better idea: TRUE justice would mean closing gitmo and sending the prisoners to be judged in a Moslem country, like Kuwait or Saudi Arabia: That way, they'll be judged by members of their own religion instead of the "infidel" ( meaning us): That sounds fair to me.

We should not treat prisoners inhumanely? Obviously some people have forgotten those poor people who were beheaded several years ago some on live TV: Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Americans Nicholas Berg, Jack Hensley, and Eugene Armstrong. Other victims include Turks, an Egyptian, a Korean, Bulgarians, a British businessman, and a Nepalese. Scores of Iraqis, both Kurds and Arabs. American businessman Paul Johnson, whose head was later discovered in a freezer in an Al-Qaeda hideout. Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, first gunned down and then mutilated on an Amsterdam street. We are expected to treat these terrorists humanely? Unfortunately, we do treat the prisoners at Gitmo humanely. The only people that were waterboarded at Gitmo were those who were verified to know information. Every prisoner at Gitmo was not waterboarded. And waterboarding did help us obtain information that did save American lives. People continue to fail to realize that we are dealing with people who have no regard for human life, especially of Americans and Jews. Their goals are to wipe us off the face of the earth. As someone suggested, we should send them back to their own countries to be judged. That would not work because these people are viewed as heroes. And also, they have found that others that have been released do return to their home countries and rejoin terrorist groups. So to summarize: The US treats the prisoners at Gitmo humanely, they receive the exact same medical care as the soldiers do, are fed, clothed and given the Koran. The terrorists behead people.

Is this really what the Republican party is all about?? If so I fear for our country and the world.

You fear for our country and the world because of the Republican Party? What is there to fear? A strong national defense, a free market, a right to life for the unborn, allowing only legal aliens into the country and not tearing apart the Constitution. Don't understand what is so scary.

The US has always been about setting the higher standard, no matter which party is in office.

During wartime we have always been known for our compassionate treatment of enemy soldiers.

I do not believe the Republican party - which has so much of its platform based on Christian morality - would ever want to be known as the party of cruelty and torture.

We have to remember where we come from and who we are.

War can make us think and do ugly things, but we are Americans and we have to remember that and not sink down to the level of Barbarians.

Is it barbaric to deprive a terrorist of sleep when we are sure it will save American lives? Is it inhumane to put a caterpillar in a boxed terrorist and tell him it is poisonous to get him to talk about the plans of blowing up a third of LA?

We are not, nor have we ever been on their level that I know of. We are not dismembering, beheading, forcing cannibalism on people they know and love. We do not blow ourselves up to kill their women and children.

We have taken the high road the entire time, but when you have someone who is trying to kill you, you need to defend yourself. That is all there is to it. We are... or were defending ourselves.

Many in the media have tried to tone down the significance of 9/11. Even our own president has changed it from a day of remembrence to a day of service. The fact is, some bad people Kamakazied two American skyscrapers and murdered thousands of American people. Men, women, maybe even children. These same people were behind the bombing of the World Trade Centers in 1993. This war is not something Bush has declared, nor Clinton, nor Obama. It was declared on us at the first drop of American blood. These people want to kill me, and you, and everyone else in this country. They do not have mercy or compassion for us. We would be killing for more people than you could possibly imagine if we did not fight back.

-whoisjohngalt

It is a hard line to toe - razor thin, and it is ouor soldiers who get cut trying to walk it.

We have to keep in mind - what does it do to our people if they torture others?

No, I do not think sleep deprivation or trickery is barbaric. Mind games have been played for years, it is - I guess you could say the "safer" way to go.

But we have to be careful that once we start entertaining thoughts like these, that it does not become actual torture. Our men and women are under great amounts of stress and all of a sudden they have someone in their power that they can take these frustrations out on. It is a very tempting scenario.

We saw it in vietnam when our men DID start to sink to the level of the Viet Cong, and then ame hom and now still suffer greatly themselves for the horrors they committed. It is as much for the protection of our own people that certain lines are not crossed as it is for the enemy.


One cannot act monstrous without becoming a monster.